Michael Bennett (born March 26, 1971, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American former boxer who won the amateur world championships in 1999 and represented the United States at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the heavyweight division (limit 201 lbs).

He began boxing in 1996, 25 years old, while in prison, as a way of staying in shape while serving a sentence for armed robbery.

He won the world championships in Houston 1999 with wins over Patrick Mesters, Uzbek Serik Umirbekov and German Steffen Kretschmann but won the final by forfeit only because Cuban superstar Félix Savón boycotted the final.

I've been able to live a lot of men's and women's dreams by coming and competing," Bennett said on his loss to Savón.

[1] In addition to his Olympic accomplishments, Bennett was also a National Amateur Heavyweight Boxing Champion in 2000 with a win over Jason Estrada.